Gulf Breeze, Florida, part of metropolitan Pensacola, sits in the far western part of the state’s Panhandle. From November 1987 through July 1988, over one-hundred-thirty-five of the city’s roughly 6,000 residents reported dozens of glowing lights surrounding oval-shaped structures in the sky. Photographs published in a local newspaper soon garnered national attention. Additional reports of unusual aircraft continued over the following three years.

Special Agent Fox Mulder, the most ardent fictional ufologist of the 1990s, chimed in on the sightings. The X-Files character said, “When I first saw the Gulf Breeze photos, I knew they were a hoax.” Many real UFO enthusiasts concur, saying the pictures suggesting an extraterrestrial presence were a prank perpetrated by one man to beguile the gullible Gulf Breeze residents and to profit financially.

Some, however, were and still are certain that alien aircraft breezed through Gulf Breeze.

Gulf Breeze UFOs?

The central figure in the Gulf Breeze UFO debate is Ed Walters. While working in his home’s study at approximately 5:00 p.m. on November 11, 1987, the thirty-nine-year-old building contractor said he glanced out the window and was gazed and amazed by a bright yellow-orange light shining from the dusk sky over the western horizon.

Ed says he was further spellbound when he went outside and stared skyward.

Ed Walters

Hovering at an estimated two-hundred feet in the air was an object shaped like a top and having several portholes. From his home’s front yard, Ed took five Polaroids of the entity. As he moved closer to it, he says the silent aircraft transmitted a beam of blue light, briefly immobilizing him.

Photographs Taken By Ed

The Pensacola News Journal chose not to publish the photos, but they were the front page story of the November 19 edition of another local newspaper, the Gulf Breeze Sentinel.  At the time, Ed wished to remained anonymous; he was identified in the paper only by the pseudonym ”Jim.”

Afterwards, multiple area residents reported seeing similar objects emanating from the sky during the previous eight days, beginning on the evening of November 11, when Ed had taken the photographs. The paper published the accounts of six of these people on November 25.

An Eye-Grabbing Headline

On December 2, one week later, six people observed a shaft of blue light beneath a similar looking aerial object. Ed was among them, and he again captured the image on film.

Ed’s December 2 Photo

The following day, two photos showing an object matching the unexplained aircraft were mailed to the Gulf Breeze Sentinel by an individual calling himself “Believer Bill.” Soon thereafter, additional similar pictures were received from another anonymous sender who claimed to have snapped the shots the year before.

On December 23, more photos were mailed by Believer Bill, once of which showed more than one aerial object.

       

              December 3 Photos                              December 23 Photos

On Christmas Eve, Ed also took a picture showing multiple UFOs. Four days later, he videotaped the objects, similar to the images in this picture.

 A five-month analysis of the video by the Mutual UFO Network (MUFON), a non-profit organization investigating UFO sightings, concluded the aerial structure was not a model and was not operated by remote control.

Ed’ December 24 Photo Showing Multiple Skyward Objects

Ed says his closest encounter with an aerial entity occurred near sunset on January 12, 1988. As he was driving along the sparsely used Soundside Drive approximately four blocks from his home, he says he was forced off the road after his hands were numbed from a bright white beam emitted from the overhead aircraft. He took another Polaroid showing the object appearing to hover slightly above the ground and lighting part of the roadway with a yellow glow. He estimated it to be six-hundred feet from him.

Using the picture, Navy optical physicist Dr. Bruce Maccabee calculated the object he called “the classic UFO photograph” to be nine feet tall, twelve feet wide, and thirteen feet in diameter.

Photo And Close-Up Of Ed’s “Classic UFO Photo”

On February 7, Ed photographed his wife Frances outside their house as she purportedly attempted to outrun a blue beam from an aerial object. Skeptics felt if his wife was being attacked, her spouse would attempt to help her instead of photographing her.

Ed And His Wife Frances

Additional similar sightings of unexplained aircraft continued into the summer. By July 1988, upwards of eighty reports were received of multicolored lights from a circular aircraft hovering over Gulf Breeze for several minutes before disappearing. Most of the reported sightings were made to either the Gulf Breeze Sentinel or to MUFON.

All the people who reported seeing the object said it was silent and appeared to be traveling around five-miles-per-hour. Some recalled it being orange and yellow in color, while others thought it was grayish/white. Some felt it emanated a blue light, while others said the light was white as well. Many recalled the structure as being oval-shaped and topped by a white dome. One resident said when he observed the aircraft, it was being trailed by what appeared to be two military jets.

Additional sightings continued into the fall and winter. Two toll booth operators and several motorists traveling along the Bob Sikes Bridge connecting Gulf Breeze to Pensacola Beach, saw, by most accounts, thirteen pink skyward objects blinking in and out on the evening of October 25, 1988. On February 5, 1989, a Gulf Breeze resident and his twelve-year-old son saw what they estimated to be a two-foot by three-foot aircraft descending toward the ground.

On September 12, a red, glowing aerial object photographed by Ed Walters was also seen by thirty-five people attending Pensacola’s Unity Church. Following these sightings, Ed went public as being the photographer.

Additional Sightings

Despite the multiple reported sightings, many aerial experts doubted the pictures’ authenticity due to the brightness around the craft and the lack of reflection on the nearby light poles and trees. In addition, the object’s bottom appeared unnaturally flattened, as if resting on a board.

NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory Scientist Dr. Robert Nathan believed the images were created through a “cut and paste” procedure because the aircraft is brighter and either more sharply focused or fuzzier than the background objects. Ed contends the blurriness was caused by the UFO moving as he snapped the pictures.

Zeroed-In Images Of Some Of The Photos

Doubters theorized the pictures were assembled by reflecting an object off a glass pane or were fabricated through double exposure using a Polaroid camera. Pensacola ABC affiliate WEAR-TV commissioned a local model maker to create a replica of the UFO to be used in testing both theories.

The reproduction was reflected in a large piece of glass and then photographed. The resulting pictures were similar to Ed Walters’ photos but not as clear.

Although the procedure was performed in a secluded area, it involved three people and was labor-intensive.  If Ed had created the original pictures in this manner, many believed someone would have noticed him doing so. No one had.

Left: Reflection Photo

Right: Ed’s Photo

WEAR-TV next tested the double exposure theory by photographing, from Ed’s front yard, the lit model against an orange-gray paper cutout in front of a large black velvet backdrop. A second photo was then taken on the same film frame, focusing over the road. The resulting image was again similar to Ed’s photo, but not as clear.

Ed had used multiple cameras in taking his pictures, one of them being a NIMSLO stereo camera which produces a three-dimensional type image. The others he had used were ill-equipped for double exposure.

Roughly only half of Ed’s photos had been taken on the camera used in the recreation.

Left: WEAR-TV Photo

Right: Ed Walter’s Photo

The double-exposure theory was further doubted because two pictures showed the object partially hidden behind a tree. WEAR-TV determined these photos had most likely not been recreated by double exposures because they would have blended, a contention supported by no trace of a cut-out line being found in the pictures.

Dr. Maccabee and MUFON concurred, saying these photos and the others would have been too difficult to create using double exposure. To generate bright light illuminating the ground from beneath the UFO, Dr. Maccabee said a crane would be needed to lift the object; to be lighted, it would need to be powered by 1,000 one-hundred-watt light bulbs fueled by a one-hundred-kilowatt generator.

Others, however, disagreed, contending a lighted model could have been photographed, and then, without advancing the film, a second exposure in the sky could have been taken making the model appear to be in the air.

The Two Photos Partially Hidden By Trees

Most of the photos were taken from Ed Walters’ front yard, but none of his neighbors had reported seeing anything unusual. In addition, no one other than Ed had taken any photographs of the UFO, nor had anyone seen him doing so. That, however, soon changed.

Additional Photos Taken By Ed

As Ed and Frances were taking an evening walk on January 8, 1990, they noticed a bright red object in the sky. They promptly returned to their home, approximately a block away, and phoned several friends, telling them of the sighting and locale. Many of them met the Walters’ at the scene and eventually saw the UFO, generally estimated at about 1,300 feet above ground.

Ed says the object was moving fast and he had difficulty photographing it with his two-hundred-millimeter lens camera, but he was able to take a few pictures of it in full view of multiple acquaintances, several of whom also took pictures which differed from those taken by Ed.

Ed’s January 8, 1990 Photos

Using Ed’s camera, Chip Holston captured a more definite image of the aircraft. He says the object initially floated in the air before quickly changing directions while darting between clouds.

Chip Holston’s Photos Using Ed’s Camera

Gulf Breeze City Councilwoman Brenda Pollak, who was among those who had earlier reported seeing the UFO, said the object’s light had undefined irregular edges, atypical of airplane lights. Behind the red color, she could see the round silhouette of an unlit object. After some time, the red light abated and the aircraft stayed in the same position for a longer period. It was at that point that she took an even more unique photo, using her thirty-five-millimeter camera equipped with a 3,000-zoom lens. She handheld the camera and used a time exposure, which may account for the streak in the picture.

Neither Brenda nor any of the other witnesses saw what appeared in this image. Photographic experts noted one-hundred-ten different color changes in the picture’s three-second exposure.

Brenda Pollak’s Picture Taken With Her Camera

These sightings, witnessed by multiple people, seemed to strengthen the legitimacy of Ed Walters’ images. In addition, he had passed a psychological testing of his mental capacity and a polygraph test centering on the authenticity of his photos.

A subsequent chance discovery, however, reinforced suspicions that the Gulf Breeze contractor had, somehow, concocted an elaborate hoax.

Ed Remains Steadfast

Ed, Frances, and their two children had moved to another home in December 1988. Their former house was purchased in November 1989 by Bob and Sarah Lee Menzer. Five months later, Bob prepared to install an icemaker for the refrigerator the former Walters home. As he was in the attic searching for a shutoff valve for the water pipes, he found a Styrofoam model of what appeared to be a “flying saucer” wrapped in old drafting paper.

The Menzers had moved to Gulf Breeze from Washington, D.C. and were unaware of the area UFO sightings. They assumed the model was something one of the Walters’ children had made and thought nothing of the discovery.

In June, three months later, Pensacola News Journal reporter Craig Myers visited the former Walters’ residence. Believing the Gulf Breeze Sentinel had sensationalized the sightings in their reporting of the local UFO story, he had begun a separate investigation.

When Myers asked the Menzers if they had found anything that may be related to the story upon moving into their home, he was told of the model they had found in the attic. The Menzers allowed Myers to take the model.

Bob And Sara Lee Menzer

The nine-inch-by-six-inch model had been assembled from four Styrofoam plates, cardboard, paper, and tinted blue-colored plastic gel. It had a six-inch round orange paper ring, a three-inch plastic tube, a two-inch wide paper ring, and electrical tape at its bottom.

The Model “Flying Saucer”

Found In Ed Walters’ Former Home

The model design closely resembles the images of the photographs taken by Ed Walters.

Left Images: Ed’s Photos

Right Images: The Model Found At His Former Home

A week later, on June 10, the Pensacola News Journal published the story of the model’s discovery. Ed Walters signed a sworn statement denying any knowledge of its existence, but he refused to take another polygraph test. Bob and Sara Lee Menzer signed a similar statement saying they did not know who had made the model.

Ed posits the model was placed in his former home after he had moved but before the Menzers moved in in an effort to discredit him, even suggesting that it could have been planted by someone from the government.

Shortly after they had moved and before their house was sold, Ed claims a former neighbor told Frances that someone with out-of-state license plates was seen entering the house’s garage and then observed pulling the attic stairs down, briefly enter the attic, promptly exit, and then leave the premises. For whatever reason, the neighbor had not informed the police of the incident; no recent area break-ins had been reported to them either.

Gulf Breeze Learns Of The Model Saucer

Ed acknowledges the model resembles his photos of the aerial object, but says it would have been idiotic of him to leave the item at his former home if he were perpetuating a scam. He also noted the article was published a month before a MUFON UFO symposium was scheduled to be held in Pensacola.

Left: Pensacola News-Journal Photo Of the Model

Right: Ed Walters’ Photo

The black portholes on the model were found to have been drawn on a strip of drafting paper cut from one of Ed’s discarded house designs for a family named Thomas. Written in what appeared to be Ed’s handwriting on the reverse side of the drafting paper were dimensions for a house in a section of Santa Rosa County where building permit records show he had previously built two homes.

Portholes On The Model

Ed contends that that particular drafting paper had come from a house plan dated September 7, 1989, twenty-two months after his initial images of the aircraft.  UFO researcher and skeptic Philip Klass, however, said his findings showed the paper on the model more likely came from January 1987 plan, eight months before Ed took his first pictures.

 Klass also said that Ed examined the model after learning of its discovery; a short time later, a portion of the January 1987 house plan was found torn. Klass believes Ed did this so that he could edit his copy of the discarded house plan to match the numbers found on the model and make it appear the model was made after his pictures were taken as opposed to before. Ed denies doing so.

Paper From Ed’s Discarded House Plan

Using the model found in Ed Walters’ former home, a Pensacola News Journal photographer fabricated this UFO photo, further casting doubts on Ed’s claims. Soon, Ed was directly accused of fabricating his photographs.

The Phony Photo

On June 17, one week after the discovery of the model saucer was published, twenty-year-old Tommy Smith, a Gulf Breeze resident and friend of Walters’ son, Dan, claimed the UFO pictures were phony and that he had helped Ed create them two-and-a-half years earlier.

On a local newscast, Tommy demonstrated how he said Ed had assembled the pictures from the model. After perching it atop a pipe in front of a black background, he placed it in front of it a tripod with a flashlight attached. He then kneeled on the floor, photographed the model, and double-exposed the film, creating the fake pictures.

In January 1988, two months after Ed’s initial pictures of the object were published in the Gulf Breeze Sentinel, Tommy said Ed gave him six photos of the bogus aircraft and instructed him to take them to the local papers; Tommy instead kept them, knowing them to be phony, but he did not tell anyone other than his parents for two years, because, he says, he did not believe they story would snowball to the degree it had.

Tommy Smith

Ed Walters, Tommy Smith contends, created the images of a flying saucer as a practical joke. Multiple friends and acquaintances of Ed confirm he was a prankster, one of them believes he was knowledgeable of trick photography and capable of creating the phony images.

While hosting a party at his home shortly before the reported sightings began, Ed’s friend Jennifer Bloomberg says he took a photo of her and her friends with the Polaroid from which he had taken his UFO pictures. When developed, she says the snapshot showed a fuzzy, out-of-focus face image next to her that she likened to a “ghost demon.” She says Ed then took another normal picture of her.

Despite WEAR-TV and Dr. Maccabee’s contentions that the photos were not likely developed through double exposure, Jennifer believes they were somehow created by Ed in that manner. Skeptics also surmised Ed was “Believer Bill” who had mailed the anonymous pictures of multiple aerial objects to the Gulf Breeze Sentinel.  Ed denies all the accusations.

Did Ed Pull Off A Master Prank?

Tommy Smith says he knows only of the six fake photographs he says were taken by Ed; he does not have an explanation for Ed’s subsequent photos or those of any of the other Gulf Breeze area residents.

Multiple UFO skeptics believe the answer lies with the city’s geography.

The Photos Tommy Says Ed Told Him to Send to Paper

Gulf Breeze is surrounded by several military installations, including Pensacola Naval Air Station, Eglin Air Force Base, Whiting Field Naval Air Station, Hurlburt Field, and several smaller facilities. Spokesmen for the bases say no unusual activity occurred at the time of the sightings and denied that Air Force planes had pursued any aerial object, as some people had reported seeing.

Many believe the purported UFOs are images caused by regular testing of military aircraft at the bases, but a Gulf Breeze County Commissioner who was a retired Air Force pilot believed that impossible, saying the armed forces at the time did not have stealth aircraft capable of moving in the fashion of the unexplained skyward object.

UFO skeptics acknowledge that if alien aircraft have arrived on Earth, Gulf Breeze would be a good venue for them to learn about, or to spy, on Earth’s military.

Pensacola Naval Air Station

Pensacola, Florida

Additional sightings of unexplained aircraft were reported by multiple people in Gulf Breeze and Pensacola in 1991. Some saw a glowing red light, while others saw an elliptical ring of white lights. One of the reported sightings was observed by MUFON member Carol Salisberry who dismissed it as flares. She, her husband Rex, and several other MUFON members say they were kicked out of the group after concluding the photos were not authentic.

Additional sporadic sightings continued through 1993.

A Few More Sightings

The Gulf Breeze Sightings, Ed and Frances Walters’ book about their UFO experiences, was published in January 1990, the same month the first photos of the object were taken by people other than Ed. Although the couple divorced in November 1992, they authored another book together, UFO Abductions in Gulf Breeze, published in January 1994.

Ed individually wrote a third book, UFOs Are Real: Here’s The Proof, in February 1997.

          

Ed Walters’ Books

Dr. Bruce Maccabee wrote a ninety-page report on the Gulf Breeze sightings in which he stated he believed Ed Walters’ photographs are genuine. His impartiality, however, was questioned after it was learned Ed had paid him $20,000 for writing an introduction to his third book.

Dr. Bruce Maccabee Physicist, Photo Analyst

Ed Walters’ supporters, which include many MUFON members, contend the plethora of sightings reported by Gulf Breeze residents, along with the photos taken by several of them, prove his pictures are bona fide.

Others, including The Center for UFO Studies (CUFOS), disagree, noting the windows on Ed’s images are not sized or spaced evenly, suggestive that they were painted on a model, and that the non-symmetrical shape has a flaw in its bottom rim. CUFOS also contends the waviness in the pictures suggests they were taken near or reflected off water and that when computer-enhanced, one photo shows a support column beneath the UFO; Ed claims it is an emulsion streak of the film.

Skeptics also feel that Ed’s pictures look staged and too perfect, as the UFO is in the middle of the frame or only slightly off-center in many of the shots. When taking pictures quickly, as Ed says he did, it is difficult to capture images in near-perfect symmetry.

Faked Photos?

Over the course of multiple hypnotic sessions, Ed Walters told of experiencing over one-hundred sighting of UFOS over six years and claims to have been abducted on at least four occasions. The following are some of the claims made by Ed in his books and/or while under hypnosis.

Shortly before the aircraft appeared on November 20, 1987, nine days after he had taken the initial photographs, Ed said he felt pain in his head as he heard buzzing and humming sounds.

On December 2, the evening Ed took the photo of the blue light emanating from the aircraft which was seen by five other people, he claimed, after being awakened by his dog barking, that some sort of entity holding a lit wand and clad in a helmet and metallic suit was glaring at him through his home’s sliding glass door. Upon seeing Ed, the being began to leave. Ed followed it and came upon the figure in his backyard, at which point he was paralyzed by the blue beam of light emitting from beneath the aerial aircraft. The light lifted Ed three feet off the ground before letting him go, at which point he was able to again move.

Ed claims the supposed alien communicated with him telepathically, referring to him as “Zeehas” and conveying “Las fotos son prohibidas,” Spanish for “photographs are not permitted.” It then communicated several statements in English including “We have come for you,” “You will not be harmed…do not be afraid,” “Do not resist us,” and “Do not deny us.”

After taking the “classic UFO picture” while driving a few blocks from his home on January 12, 1988, Ed said he hid beneath his truck after five aliens were beamed to the ground. He described them as appearing about four feet tall and carrying glowing silver wands. As they slowly approached the truck, Ed re-entered the vehicle and sped away.

At 8:00 the following morning, Ed claimed two men professing to be from the government arrived at his home saying they had a “material warrant” for his UFO pictures. They left after Ed told them he had given them to a reporter.

Several people gathered with Ed at the local Shoreline Park to look for the aircraft on the evening of March 17, 1988. After everyone else had left, Ed said he again heard the buzzing sound in his head. A few minutes later, the UFO appeared, and he took two pictures of it. The others saw the camera flash, returned to Ed, and saw the pictures develop showing the UFO.

While back at Shoreline Park at around midnight on May 1, Ed says he lost consciousness for approximately an hour after taking a picture of the object. When he awoke, he said he was bruised.

Ed claimed a UFO had landed near his house and described the impression it had left on the ground. Tommy Smith created a similar impression by turning a trampoline upside down and jumping on it.

A Drawing Of The “Alien”

Ed Claimed To Have Seen

Prior to his UFO sightings, Ed had claimed to have experienced “missing time” on three occasions. The first instance occurred during a canoe trip and he initially attributed it to heat stroke, while he attributed the second occasion to either a lack of sleep or a nightmare. The third episode he recalled most vividly.

While driving home shortly after midnight and not seeing any lights in his car’s mirrors, Ed claims he saw a bright light approach him after he had stopped and exited his vehicle. When he re-entered his car, the interior became illuminated as the light lifted off the road. Ed claimed the next thing he remembered was driving in the morning traffic, five hours later.

Ed Also Claims Instances Of “Missing Time”

Many believe the claims made by Ed Walters in his books and while under hypnosis, as well as his earlier contentions of having experienced missing time seem too sensationalized.

In addition, many believe his credibility is tainted by his 1967 forgery and auto theft convictions for which he had served one-and-a-half years in state prison.

Has Ed Led An Aerial Wild Goose Chase?

UFO skeptics also note similarities between Ed’s claims and the book Communion, in which ufologist and horror author Whitley Strieber describes his alleged instances of lost time and alien encounters.

Streiber’s book was published in February 1987, nine months before Ed Walters’ first photos were taken.

Similarities To Strieber’s Book

As an unexplained aerial craft hovered over the small city in the Florida Panhandle, another intriguing incident transpired on the ground.

On July 14, 1990, six soldiers of the United States Army’s 701^st Military Intelligence Brigade were arrested in Gulf Breeze five days after leaving their base in Augsburg, West Germany, without authorization. Twenty-two-year-old Sergeant Annette Eccleston, twenty-two-year-old Private First Class William Setterberg, twenty-five-year-old Specialist Vance Davis, nineteen-year-old Private First Class Michael Hueckstaedt, twenty-six-year-old Specialist Kenneth Beason, and twenty-year-old Private First Class Kris Perlock were all military intelligence analysts and trained cryptographers. Because the soldiers had access to highly classified materials, they were arrested for desertion, but the charges were later lessened to AWOL (absent without leave) and possession of forged leave papers. Those charges were ultimately dismissed and each received a general discharge from the Army.

“The Gulf Breeze Six” all believed in Christian eschatology and said they had been “spiritually instructed” to leave the military to prepare for the oncoming rapture, when Jesus returns to gather believers from Earth and take them to heaven for judgment. Members of their unit  said some of the AWOL soldiers initially also intended to kill the Antichrist, but they denied this.

A MUFON conference was held in nearby Pensacola on July 9, the day the soldiers were declared AWOL. Newspapers reported the group had an interest in flying saucers and had come to Gulf Breeze because of the sightings, but all denied any intrigue in UFOs, and none are believed to have attended the convention.

The group had stayed at the home of Gulf Breeze resident Anna Foster, a reputed psychic who had dated Beason when he trained in Pensacola and with whom she continued to correspond while he was stationed in West Germany.

The “Gulf Breeze Six”

Among the Gulf Breeze residents who reported seeing the strange objects in the sky was Dr. Fenner McConnell, a forensic pathologist at Pensacola’s Sacred Heart Hospital and the Escambia County Chief Medical Examiner. He was also an avid runner and bicycler.

On July 5, 1998, the sixty-three-year-old McConnell was killed in a hit-and-run accident while riding his bicycle over the Bob Sikes Bridge from where, coincidentally, several motorists and the two toll booth operators had reported seeing the strange lights in October 1988.

Dr. Fenner McConnell

The motorist, twenty-two-year-old James Beam, fled the site but turned himself in several hours later. In December, he pled no contest to leaving the scene of a fatal accident and was sentenced to thirteen months in prison, along with two years of house arrest and eight years of probation following his release. He was also given a $10,000 fine and ordered to perform one-hundred-twenty hours of community service at a trauma center.

At the time of the accident, James Beam had been off probation for six months following a DUI arrest, but he had not recently guzzled any Jim Beam at the time of the accident.

James Beam